7 Steps to Start a Successful Blog on a Budget

A 5-step guide for busy moms who want to know how to start a successful blog on a budget. Earn an income from home and get started on less than $12/mo.

My blogging income in June was $5,554. While that is a record for me, I have been making a healthy part-time income for well over a year from home through my blog, even as a busy mom with two toddlers at home.

Whenever I actually tell people that I write and blog for a living (which is rarely), I get the head tilt, eyebrows scrunched look and the dubiously-asked question “How do you make money blogging?”

Despite this awkward reaction to my unconventional business, no one could be more surprised than I am that I am able to make a steady income from home by blogging.

I never started out to make blogging a business. When I began GrowingSlower in 2011, a couple of months after my oldest was born, it was simply to fulfill my personal need, yes need, to write. As a newly stay at home mom, it was also a connection to the outside world and an opportunity to share all I was learning about simple and frugal living.

It was years before my blog started earning any significant income, quite by accident, and in that moment I realized that just maybe I could have the best of both worlds.

I could use my love for writing to authentically share my passion and experience to help other moms reach their financial and family goals. And at the same time, I could help my family by earning a much-needed income.

My life is full of strollers, Legos, homeschool curriculum, and in my “spare time”, working from home blogging. It isn’t easy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! Image Credit

Here’s what I now know. If you have a passion you are longing to share with the world, if you’re willing to work hard, and if you start out following a few simple guidelines for starting your blog the right way, you can make an income blogging, even in the midst of a busy family life and on a tight budget.

Looking back on my blogging journey, I can just imagine how much more quickly and easily I could have reached this point if I could somehow have known when I started what I know now about how to become a successful blogger and make money doing it.

But since that’s not possible, I am sharing everything I’ve learned with you, so your path will be that much smoother. Nothing would make me happier than to help out another busy mama who is wanting to start her blog. So, here we go!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Earning an Income Blogging

Almost daily, I receive emails from busy moms who have been curious about blogging for a while but aren’t sure where to get started or how it can be turned into an income. They love writing and have so many ideas they want to share with the world through blogging and earn an income at the same time.

If you’ve been thinking about blogging, don’t wait another day. Start now, so you can start growing your blog and your income. I’ll walk you through it step by step. Here is a comprehensive guide for how to start a profitable blog on a budget.

It’s a beautiful time in history where you can share your passion with the world right from your dining room table, and earn an income doing it. All you have to do is start! Image Credit

This post includes affiliate links to many of my favorite affordable blogging resources. At no cost to you, I earn a small commission when you click one of my links and make a purchase.

How to Start a Successful Blog on a Budget

These 5 steps to start your blog will take no more than an hour to complete. Then you’ll have all the basics in place to start sharing your message with the world!

1. Choose a Host

The first step to starting your blog is to pick a host. A “host” is a company that houses your blog online and allows it to be seen by your readers.

There are free options out there. I started out on the free blogging platform Blogger. Unfortunately, this was a huge mistake that really held me back from growing my readership and my income until I finally switched to self-hosted WordPress October 2014. That’s when things really started to take off!

Before I switched to a paid WordPress host, I wasn’t even a bug on Google’s windshield. Now it’s my #2 traffic source.

I always assumed that it would be too expensive to pay for hosting for my blog. However, this just isn’t the case. Starting a blog is very affordable.

For a new blog, I recommend choosing the starter plan and then upgrading as needed. Most likely, you’ll be just fine with the starter hosting for quite a while.

If I were starting a blog today, I would 100% go with a paid host with WordPress as my blogging platform.

Here’s why I chose to pay for hosting:

It is MUCH more affordable than I imagined.

Shows up in search results much better. (My search traffic has increased by 1928% since I switched!)

Many more options for creating a user-friendly, professional-looking site.

More control of your own content.

More options for income through products, ads, and sponsorships.

Very easy to use.

Simply put, there’s a reason why WordPress is the most popular blogging and website platform in the world. And to use it, you need to choose a host. It only takes a few minutes to get set up with a host.

Bluehost offers easy one-click WordPress installation included with the cost of your hosting plan. They have a great reputation for customer service, affordable hosting, and are perfect for new bloggers.

So, if you want to start a profitable blog on a budget, your first step is to head over to Bluehost and choose your plan. Click the get started now button, and I’ll walk you through the basics of how to get your blog up and running.

I personally use Black Chicken because I need more managed hosting now and a higher plan. It’s more expensive than other options, but I have had a great experience with them. Switching in the future if needed when your traffic grows is very easy, as long as you start out on WordPress.

2. Choose a Topic

Chances are if you’ve been thinking about blogging, you already have in mind the topic you’d like to write about. However, with so many blogs out there, is there room for yet another one about your chosen topic?

Here’s what I truly believe and have seen to be true again and again. You have a unique story and perspective. If you are willing to authentically share that on your blog, and just be you, you won’t have any trouble finding a loyal group of readers and make a good income.

You also might have heard that you need to pick a particular topic in order to make an income blogging. I have not found this to be necessary. It’s not like there’s a list of successful blog topics out there that you must pick from.

There are successful bloggers making part-time and full-time incomes in a huge variety of categories, especially “lifestyle blogs” which include fashion, budgeting, food, faith and lots more. So, whatever you’re into you can create a successful blog about.

You will certainly be the most successful if you blog about something you are truly passionate about. Again, it goes back to writing authentically in the context of your unique story.

3. Choose a Domain Name

A domain name is the web address people will type in to get to your blog. For instance, the domain name for this blog is affordingmotherhood.com.

The cost for a domain is about $10 to $15 for the year. I recommend buying your domain name through the host that you’ve chosen to use, for simplicity sake. This will save you the extra step of connecting your domain to your host.

Bluehost offers a free domain name registration with their standard hosting plan.

In this step, you’re essentially choosing what to name your blog. That could seem a little daunting. However, it is not hard to change your domain name down the road if needed, so don’t stress over it too much.

There seems to be a trend now of people simply using some combination of their first and last names, so if you’re totally stumped, that’s a safe bet.

Just enter your domain name in the little search box to see if it’s available.

You’ll then be asked to enter your account information like your name, address and email address.

The next screen is where you officially select your hosting package. You can choose from a one, two or three-year plan along with a few other options.

If you’re going to be using your home address for your blog registration, then you’ll want to include the Domain Privacy Protection.

Next, enter your credit card info to pay for your hosting package.

Follow the instructions to set up the password for your account.

4. Install WordPress

WordPress is the blogging software that I use along with pretty much every serious blogger out there.

Navigate to the WordPress install area and click the Start button. Told you it was easy!

Select the domain name you chose in Step 3. You’ll then be asked to choose a login name and password for your WordPress account.

For better security, don’t use ‘admin’ or your blog name for the Username.

Once your install is completed, you’ll see an Admin URL. This is where you’ll go to login to your new blog. Go there and log in with the username and password you just created.

Congratulations! You just started your blog!

5. Choose a Theme

A theme works with WordPress to control the way your blog looks. This is what will allow you to choose page layouts, fonts, colors, and much more.

There are free themes available, but after much research, I decided that a paid theme was definitely worth the small investment.

Here are a few of the reasons I chose a paid theme:

Higher quality theme by design professionals

Updates for latest web changes, guidelines, and security

No risk of hidden malicious code

Ongoing support

The last thing you want to do is put time into customizing your theme and then find out a couple months later that it doesn’t comply with the latest updates, or worse yet has some hidden code that is compromising your blog and your business.

For my theme, I use and recommend Elegant Themes. You can buy an annual membership, starting at $69, and you gain access to all of their themes. (I recently upgraded to the lifetime membership because I’m not going anywhere.)

That means if you start customizing a theme and realize it’s not what you had in mind, you aren’t stuck. You can just download another one of their dozens of themes until you find the one that is perfect for you without any extra cost.

Elegant Themes has fantastic support and beautifully designed themes (as in both beautiful to look at and easy to use), and they’re constantly updating their library and resources. Best of all, they’re always here to answer questions if I run into a problem.

(Everything you need to know about choosing colors, fonts, and creating a logo)

6. Start an Email List

Collecting the email addresses of your most loyal readers is one of the most important steps to growing your traffic and your blogging income.

Imagine you’ve just published your new and totally amazing blog post. You just know that this is going to go viral. Wouldn’t you like a large group of hundreds or even thousands of people that believe in your message to see it right away?

That is why you need an email list. It is free to start one.

I use MailChimp for my email management system. It has a lot of good features. Best of all, it is free up to 2,000 subscribers and up to 12,000 emails every month. No credit card required.

How much does it cost to get started blogging?

So, based on the above recommendations, your total cost to start blogging for income is about $140 for your whole first year. If you look back to my interview with Gina Horkey, this is similar to the $171 she invested to start her successful freelance writing business.

Can you start a blog for free? Yes. From my experience, you won’t see the full fruits of your labor until you make the small investment to start your blog the right way. When you do, you’ll soon recoup your cost many, many, many times over.

There are few other businesses you can start with such a small startup cost and that give you the flexibility of working from home.

7. Monetize Your Blog

I know what you’re asking yourself. Before I jump into starting my new blog, how am I going to use it to actually earn an income for my family?

I totally get it! Blogging isn’t the most common career path, and it can be a bit of a mystery when you first start out, but I promise it’s all totally legit.

When people ask me about how I make money blogging, I use the magazine analogy. When you buy a magazine subscription, chances are the publication isn’t even covering its costs to print and mail you their magazine.

Instead, their income mostly comes from sponsors that place ads or articles on their pages.

With a blog, you provide free articles to your readers, while sponsors pay you to include their ads within the post.

In addition to ads, you can also earn income through affiliate networks, sponsored posts, writing books, and creating related products and services.

One of the main ways to earn an income blogging is through placing ads in your articles, similar to magazines. Image Credit

Of course, bloggers can make a wide range of incomes, and most of it depends on getting started the right way and then continuing to stick with it.

I’ve already shared that I now make a full-time income blogging, but what about other bloggers?

In her 2016 post, Amy Lynn Andrews estimated that bloggers can make around 1% of their page views per month. So, if you have 30,000 pageviews, you might expect to make about $300 per month. In my personal experience, that seems a little low. I usually find myself anywhere from the 1 to 3% range.

In her book, blogger Ruth Soukup notes that the tipping point for earning $50,000 per year is about 300,000 pageviews per month. However, if you just need some part time income, 25,000 to 50,000 pageviews will get you around $10,000 to $15,000 per year.

For specific detail about how to earn an income blogging visit the following post…

I’ve been blogging for about 6 months now I just recently posted my 50th blog post. It took awhile to figure out exactly what topic I was passionate enough about, originally I began as a food blogger, however I has since transitioned into a blog that aims to reach millenials who are at different stages including college, jobs, and new parenthood depending on the path they have chosen to take. Blogging helped me to get my freelance writing career off the ground, and I am hoping that soon I will be able to do well enough with my freelance writing that I can finally invest that ~$200 necessary to get my blog on the profit making path.

Thank you so much for this! I have been wanting to blog for well over a year. I kept putting it off thinking I didn’t really have anything anyone would be interested in BUT…Like you said….just be me. I am sure there are many more out there with my same struggles who may need a little input on how I get through them and some encouragement.

Exactly! I’ve heard the analogy from many different people that you really just need to be one step ahead. It’s kind of like the model of discipleship. The people who are ahead in a certain aspect can help those who are a step behind, and hopefully you also have someone ahead of you to look up to and learn from. I hope you’ll come back and update me when you start your blog Kim!

Love this article, it’s got some great actionable tips. I think I’m going to move forward with wordpress hosting in the new year, I want to get some more content up on my blog before I do that. Just a quick question how does switching to paid wordpress hosting increase your blog visibility more than just using the free hosting? just wondering!

Oh goodness yes! It has paid for itself many times over. I wish I had started with self-hosted wordpress from the beginning, but since I can’t go back in time, I just make it my mission to make sure other new bloggers get started the right way! :) Best wishes on your blog!

Hi Betsy, thanks for stopping by the blog. Yes, you can start a blog for free, but as I mentioned in the post, you’ll have a much better chance of success if you do go with a paid host. However, the investment is minimal. I have been earning a significant income through blogging that has allowed me to stay at home with my kids since about 2014, so I can say yes, it really does work. I hope you’re able to find the at home job you need!

I am starting to set up a blog. I understand it will take some time before it really generates some income, but can you give me an idea of how long it may take before a blog can generate a part-time or full-time income? I am curious if it is possible to do that in about a year or if that will take many years?

Great question! Yes, based on all my research and my own experience, I believe you can start making a part time or full time income within 6 to 9 months. Especially if you go about setting it up the right way from the start. Best of luck! :)

After years of thinking about starting a blog, I finally did it. Thank you so much for posting this. I would love to make an income blogging and continue to stay at home with my son. I was wondering if you’ve posted the blog about how generate an income blogging? I just want to make sure I didn’t over look it. Thank you so much, Brandy.

Wow! That’s so awesome Brandy! Congratulations!! You can learn more about Reply

Lacey
on November 19, 2015 at 7:37 pm

I wanted to let you know that this evening is the first time I have came across your blog and as I have many others I read through it. However, I’m not sure what it is about your particular blog but for some reason I feel drawn to it. A lot of what you have blogged about sounds so much like myself. I have wanted to start my own blog for a while (3 years to be exact) but being the procrastinator that I am, not knowing where/how to start AND racking my brain for a domain name has prevented it. I too, have a passion for writing. I always have. All the way back to Elementary school. I have many, many ideas for my blog and have had to hand write everything as I think of it. My dilemma now is coming up with a domain name haha. I have a binder with “my blog” topics, “layout” etc. I literally am just steps away…if I can ever decide on a domain name. Thank you so much for the inspiration you give and the passion you put into your writing…Unlike some blogs where the content is just as original as the next one I click on after it. I only hope to become half the blogger you are. Thank you for sharing this, it has helped!!

Wow, you really are just a breath away from starting your blog, and wish all the passion and organization you already have, you have such a great start. I know I already mentioned in the post, but I wouldn’t let choosing a domain name hold you back from starting your blog as it really can be changed pretty easily down the road if you find you just hate it. Some variation on your own name is an easy place to start. I hope to hear back from you someday soon that you’ve started your blog! :)

You have inspired me to start my own blog and work towards becoming a work from home mom! I love your blog so much. I have a question: can you please explain why starting on a free blogging platform held you back from growing your readership and income?

Great question! Yes, starting on a free platform limited my visibility to search engines (there are so many spammy blogs and sites that are self-hosted, I think that google just ignores all of them). They also don’t have the speed that self-hosted plans can. (readers don’t want to sit around waiting for a site to load) While you can do custom blog URLS with some free platforms, if you have the /blogger or /wordpress web address, it just doesn’t look as professional or legit to potential readers and sponsors. It also limited my ability to customize and optimize my blog design for growing my audience and income. There may be other reasons someone more technical than myself could explain, but all in all, I saw my traffic increase almost over night after I switched over. I hope that helps a bit! Best wishes with your blog!

Thank you, I started my blog on January 1st of this year. I paid for a host and got the free domain name. I have been using a free theme so far. Your post encourage me as I am starting out ok. Traffic has been slow, but I just watched an online series about SEO that I believe will help. I look forward t your next post. Also, I had trouble picking a domain name and picked this one but would love to change it later.

That’s fantastic that you’ve already started out your blog the right way Linda! Keep it up. Also, be patient; I’ve noticed it can take about 3 months to really get your posts picked up on Google or Pinterest. Best wishes to you!

Years ago I had some articles or blogs that I posted on WordPress & a few other sites. The site supplys some kind of a dashbord that shows how many people read my content each month. It also shows how much I earned each.month. I have never received any payment from this company. I was wondering if you can tell me where to go or who to contact about this. If I would recieve the pay for my contribution it could be a great side job. I eagerly await a response. Mary

Hi Mary Joe! WordPress is just the platform that you use to create and publish your blog posts. They do not pay bloggers. So, I’m guessing you may have been signed up with an ad network or affiliate program where you were earning income. Some of the most common are Adsense and Amazon. However, there are many thousands of options out there for earning an income blogging, so you’d really have to go back to your blog and check if you see whether you were working with a particular company. One thing I can say in general is that some companies have a minimum amount you must earn before they will issue a payment, it would be anywhere fomr $10 to $50 or so. If your earnings were below that threshold, then that may be why you haven’t been paid. Also, make sure to check that you have given them your up-to-date contact information. I hope you’re able to make a go of your blog as a source of income soon! :)

Thank you for sharing this information with us! Am I understanding correctly that you would advise gaining loyal readers through the WordPress-based blog we create and then using the emails of these readers for the email list you mention? Or did you get loyal readers for the list another way? Thank you for helping me understand this better.

Hi Kari! I think you’re understanding me correctly. Your readers will initially find you through your WordPress blog. Hopefully, you’ll be offering them lots of amazing articles that they’ll love, so they will want to join your email list. On your blog, you’ll need to include a link to your email sign up (you can see some on my blog at the bottom of posts. Hope that helps answer your question! :)

Dear Shannon,
Thank you so much for this!! I have been thinking about starting a blog for a year now and somehow kept thinking how will I ever get people to read it. With the help of your post I was able to start my own blog! I promised myself I will not comment until I had something up and running. It’s very new and very small (only 3 posts up so far) but I would be honoured if you check it out. The entire credit goes to you.
Much love all the way from Dubai xx

This post has been very informative. I am currently looking to expand my blog and this has helped me hone in on some good choices in order to kickstart my business. Your recommendations are awesome and I can’t wait to get my blog up and running. This was the motivation I needed. Thanks a million times over!!

Thank you for this post. I am a SAHM of 3 kids. With only one source of income, I would love to be able to create some extra income blogging to help my family out. I love to share ideas and recipes online so I really feel like blogging is my calling but I am nervous to start because I feel like there are so many different directions to take and I want to know I am going to do everything I can to be successful.

Hi Anna! I love that you already know blogging is your calling! You’re totally right that there are many possible directions to go, but you won’t truly know which is the one that will make you most successful until you get out there and try a few things. Also, with practice, you’ll be much more likely to see posts take off. I don’t think you need to be afraid to start, though. As long as you start your blog off the way I’ve outlined in the post, you’re going to have such a great start. This is everything I wish I would have known in my first years of blogging that would have helped me become successful so much faster. You can do it! And I hope you’ll stop by and give me an update about how you’re doing as you do get started :)

I love your site!! Just wondering when you expect to be going into specific detail about how I earn an income blogging? If you’ve already posted that, can you please tell me where to find it? Thanks so much!

Hi! Thanks for all the helpful tips. I have been blogging on and off for a few years, and am currently using a wordpress.com site but pay for my domain name so it doesn’t have the .wordpress.com at the end of it. If I choose to go through blue boat to host my blog, do I type in my current blog/domain name into the already have one box instead of creating a new one? And will all my current blog content transfer over? Thanks!!! :)

Vanessa, my best advice is to just get started and see what works for you and your readers. You’ll never really know for sure until you try. Once you do start, you can then fine tune. You can check out my post on how to choose a blog topic for more details and inspiration. Best wishes with your new blog!

Hello, I just found your blog while looking for resources on financial planning. We’ve been passive and a little sloppy in this dept for our entire marriage and want to change that. I have to be honest. While a lot of the resources here are fantastic, I feel suspicious about the blogging for profit idea. Seems a bit too good to be true. I went to a very good school and majored in lit/writing. There was no mention of the potential to write, profitably, for the internet (with the exception of science/medical writing). Could a writer generate a decent income simply with freelance writing and blogging? Where does the money come from? Ads? Or would I have to also have a product to sell (i.e., a course, ebooks, etc). I’m feeling a pyramid scheme here (buy my writing course, start a blog, sell your course, etc). Gina’s income in her first few months was outrageously high. More than I make now as a librarian. Forgive me for being cynical/suspicious. I’m just curious.

Hi Baz, thanks for your comment. I’m so happy you’re looking towards getting your finances to where you want them to be. It also sounds like you are in a fantastic position to find a work from home situation with either freelance writing or blogging with your writing background.

So let me start out by answering your first question: where does the income come from? I go into this in greater detail in my How to Make Money from a Blog post, but it sounds like you’ve got the idea. My main source of income is through ads, but I also earn money through my books and courses, affiliate commissions, my Etsy store, and occasionally sponsored posts.

If you just want to earn an income from writing, I would go the freelance route, like what Gina teaches. I can definitely see how it can seem too good to be true, but you have to look at these fields, either blogging or freelance, as a job/business. It’s definitely not a get rich quick thing. Those who become successful work hard, just as anyone in a more conventional job does. What I love about Gina is she is an incredibly hard worker. If you look at her story, she started out in freelance while working full time, so she was getting up at 4:30 in the morning and working weekends so she could grow her income. She was so determined. Her first month she made $805. Amazing!

As for me with blogging, I’ve had times when I woke up at 5 in the morning to work after being up with a baby all night or stayed up until late into the night to work after my kids have gone to bed. But I love this work and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I wish you the very best with your endeavors! And if you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! :)

I have wanted to start my own blog for years now, though I can’t help but wonder, would it be best to partner with an already established blogger at this point? To start out doing guest posts? Instead of adding to the competition? How would I even go about contacting a blog administrator with this option?

Hi Sydney! Not many blogs pay for articles and guest posts, but I think what you’d be interested in is freelancing writing. Creating content for other websites is definitely an option if you want the flexibility to work from home writing. You can check out my interview with Gina about how to get started freelance writing. I think it just comes down to what you’re more interested in doing. Do you want to create a blog that you are able to share more of your story and build relationships with readers? Or do you just want to straight up write articles that fill another site’s requirements? I hope you find the perfect situation for you!